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<title>It Won't Be Like This All The Time by LikeASwitchInHeat</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24090283">It Won't Be Like This All The Time</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LikeASwitchInHeat/pseuds/LikeASwitchInHeat'>LikeASwitchInHeat</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Flashes of Rhink [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rhett &amp; Link</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Secret Relationship, Sharing a Bed, Teen Angst, college rhink</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:28:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>489</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24090283</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LikeASwitchInHeat/pseuds/LikeASwitchInHeat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted to Tumblr April 2019</p>
    </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Flashes of Rhink [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1433353</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>It Won't Be Like This All The Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted to Tumblr April 2019</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Mornings at the beach house were hardest for Link.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Especially in contrast with how magical the nights were: When the rest of the McLaughlin clan had gone to sleep, and he and Rhett finally had an excuse to retreat to their shared room. Because who would believe that two teenagers enjoying their last summer vacation before college would wanna turn in early?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But at the earliest opportunity, they were shutting themselves behind closed doors. There was a mattress on the floor for Link, but he never got onto it right away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rhett would pull back the sheet, wordlessly inviting Link into his bed - as he did every night of the family vacation Link had been invited to tag along on. Link would crawl into the twin bed with him. Both wearing nothing but their boxers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rhett still smelled like the fake coconut scent of sunblock, and the salt of the sea. He would hold Link so tightly, as their tongues explored one another’s lips and mouths as if it wasn’t all well charted territory by now. Link’s stomach still dropped whenever Rhett’s hand would slip under the thin fabric of his shorts. This part, was still new. Not brand new, but new enough to still give him butterflies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They would trade hands, and desperate sounds. They would tell eachother everything that they didn’t dare say out loud during the day. And when they’d exhausted each other, they would fall asleep in each other’s arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But when the tracest hints of daylight invaded their eastern window, the spell was broken. It didn’t matter if they didn’t hear anyone else awake, Rhett didn’t want to take chances with his family. And while Link didn’t blame him, it still stung.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rhett would nudge him, and Link would understand that it was time. It wasn’t meant as rejection. It wasn’t meant to be degradation. Link knew that it would kill Rhett if he knew how it made him feel, like a dog being relegated to the floor, not allowed on the bed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Link would curl up on his mattress on the floor, and never quite get back to sleep. Thinking of how he and Rhett would have to act like friends, like brothers. Rhett’s voice would be different. The sound of his own name on Rhett’s lips would be different when it hit Link’s ears in the daytime. They’d have to try not to look at each other shirtless in their swim trunks, but also try not to conspicuously not look. It was so much work to act like he wasn’t in love with him. Between that and how little sleep they’d actually gotten that night, Link was prematurely exhausted. He sighed audibly, louder than he’d meant to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Rhett whispered to him the same promise he made every day, instead of a more traditional ‘good morning’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’ll be different next year. Away from home. It won’t be like this all the time…”</span>
</p>
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